Behavioral Health Blog

What is emotional eating and how does it differ from binge eating disorder? Emotional eating is a general term for a type of disordered eating. It's characterized by obsessive thinking about food and unwanted, compulsive eating. The behavior is often a response to psychological stressors. Especially ...

A patient once told me that she wanted a taste of her daughter’s ice cream, but resisted. At first, she felt proud of her self-control, but later she binged. When I asked why not have a taste of ice cream if she wanted it, she reacted ...

Would you prefer to be free as a wolf in the wild, free to roam, or secure on a dog-sled team, safe and well-fed, with purposeful work? I came across this beautifully filmed short documentary called Vargsamtal, which means wolf call in Swedish. It’s about a ...

For many years, the long-term success rates for those who attempt to lose excess body weight have hovered around 5-10 percent. In what other disease condition would we accept these numbers and continue on with the same approach? How does this situation sustain itself? It goes on ...

In the Winter of 1944, World War II was ending and there were horrific stories of widespread starvation across Europe. The American government would soon be responsible for a massive refeeding project overseas, but there were no medical guidelines for how this should be done. Ancel ...

When January comes to an end, New Year’s resolutions often do as well – especially if it’s a resolution to diet. Although you’re sincere in your commitment to lose weight, if you’re on a diet you may find that with each passing week, you’re increasingly likely ...

I’m often asked by patients and friends if I recommend keeping a food or activity diary. I have to admit that I’ve always been very ambivalent about this. I know that for people who enjoy tracking and recording things, it can make them more mindful about ...

Our struggle with controlling our behavior has a long history. The first recorded diet long pre-dated Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers; when God told Adam and Eve to avoid eating from the Tree of Knowledge, their freedom to make their own dinner plans was indeed somewhat ...

Are diets on their way out? Surveys done over the past twenty years suggest that’s the case. The NPD Group, which monitors trends in eating, reported in 2012 that only 20 percent of adults surveyed said they were on a diet, down from a peak of ...